The Love of Your Life

1 John 2:15-17
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, March 18, 2001
Copyright © 2001, P. G. Mathew

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does– comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever.

1 John 2:15-17

What is the love of your life? What is it that gives you the greatest happiness and satisfaction? Wherein does your security lie? Is it your education? Is it your wife? Is it your children? Is it your husband? Is it your house? Is it your golf clubs? This is the question discussed by the apostle John in 1 John 2:15-17.

In the previous passage, 1 John 2:12-14, John articulated the doctrine of justification saying, “I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven,” referring to sins past, present, and future. Justification means that all sins are forgiven and we stand forgiven. But in verses 15 through 17 John speaks of sanctification, commanding us, as God’s children, not to love the world and, by implication, to love our Father in heaven.

We want to study three points from this passage: First, the prohibition of our heavenly Father of certain things; second, our Father’s reasoning, or explanation, for his prohibition; and, third, the Father’s promise of immortality for those who do his will.

The Father’s Prohibition

In 1 John 2:15 we find this prohibition: “Do not love the world or anything in the world.” In the Greek text it has this meaning: “Stop loving the world.” As Christians, we are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. But because we are in the world and sin still dwells in us, we are tempted to be worldly. In this passage John is telling us we must resist that temptation. So he wrote, “Stop it! Stop loving the world!”

Only the people of God have the freedom to resist temptation. Unbelievers can only sin, and Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones correctly said that we should not tell the people of the world to live by the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount because they cannot do it. But Christians are able to resist temptation, so this prohibition is directed to us as children of God who have been given freedom by God not to love the world. We are not to love the world; rather, we are to love God and our Christian brothers.

What is Love for the World?

What does it mean to love the world? It means to place the highest esteem and value on the world and, therefore, to be devoted and wholeheartedly loyal to it. A Christian who loves the world in this way is being doubleminded. We are called to serve God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. When we love the world, we are trying to serve two masters at the same time. Jesus Christ himself told us, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Matt. 6:24, Luke 16:13).

To love the world and the things in the world is to place what is opposed to God as the object of one’s highest devotion. God’s own people do this, as we read in John 1:11: “He came to that which was his own but his own did not receive him.” Jesus came as the light of the world, but in John 3:19 we read, “Men loved darkness instead of light.” In John 12:43 we see some Pharisees who believed in Jesus would not publicly confess their faith in him for fear they would be put out of the synagogue. “[F]or they loved praise from men more than praise from God.”

In 2 Timothy 4:10 Paul speaks about his former associate, Demas, saying, “Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.” Demas abandoned Paul and went to Thessalonica. What was Demas’ problem? Worldliness.

In 2 Timothy 3:1 we read, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-having a form of godliness but denying its power.” This is worldliness.

What is meant by the word “world”? The Greek word is kosmos, which is the opposite of chaos. The fundamental meaning of the word for world, kosmos, is order, organization. So when John said, “Do not love the world,” he was saying, in essence, “Do not love humanity organized in rebellion to God.”

John was not speaking about avoiding the created universe, which God created as good. He was not speaking about money or trees or gold or silver, or about the earth or the human race as such. In fact, while John tells us in this epistle, “Do not love the world,” in the gospel of John he writes, “God so loved the world” (John 3:16). So God is interested in this world of sinful human beings. God created the world and called it very good, and it is the object of God’s saving purpose (John 3:17). Christ came into this world to be its light and told us that we who are his disciples are also the light of the world. The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world; that Jesus Christ came into the world to give life to it; and that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for the whole world. In all of these situations the word “world” is used in a positive sense.

In what sense, then, must we understand the “world” that we must not love? As we said, John was referring to the world as the life of human society organized against God under the power of the evil one, the devil. “World” means the world of rebellion, the world of evil, which is not caused or ordered by God. So God is not telling us not to be interested in the redemption of the people of the world. But when he prohibits us from loving the world, he is saying, “Do not participate in the sin and evil and rebellion of the world.”

The word kosmos means order or organization. It is used here, then, to refer to the organization of all evil powers against God. We know there is a kingdom of Satan, also called the realm of darkness. The Bible tells us about the god of this world, the prince of this world, whom Jesus Christ condemned, judged, and drove out by his death on the cross. We also know that unbelievers are under the rule of Satan, and, just as they hated Jesus Christ, they also hate Christians. In 1 John 5:19 we read, “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” In 1 John 4:4 we read, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” Satan is the spiritual intelligence that animates and directs the society of unbelievers.

Thus, to love the world is to live in enmity to God. It is to live independently of God, as if he had nothing to do with our lives. It is to live the life of a fool, for the Bible tells us it is the fool who says in his heart, “There is no God” (Ps. 14 and 53). James also tells us that a life of such friendship with the world “is hatred toward God” (James 4:4). In other words, to love the world is to love sin, to love evil, and to be against God and twith the devil.

Christians those who are chosen out of the world. As the light of the world, we are in the world but not of it; our citizenship is in heaven. Having overcome the evil one in and through Jesus Christ, we now can resist the temptations of the world as Jesus Christ himself resisted. We do not withdraw from the world, but we do not conform to it. We refuse to worship creation. Our ultimate joy comes, not from the world, but from God our heavenly Father.

Thus, when John says, “Do not love the world,” he means “Do not participate in the evil of the world.” We must reject worldliness and embrace godliness.

What Is Worldliness?

Some people think worldliness is defined as pornography and certain other related sins. Worldliness does include these things, but it encompasses much more than pornography. For example, there are many ways worldliness manifests itself in the church, including the following:

To adapt the gospel to the changing philosophy of the world is worldliness. In other words, if you are a preacher and you refuse to preach the word of God, you have come under the world in its organization against God.
To preach a liberal gospel that rejects the miracles and the deity of Jesus Christ is worldliness.
To preach an ethics of relativism is worldliness.
To preach that a person can have Jesus as Savior but does not have to worry about making him Lord is worldliness. It means standing with the devil in rebellion against the sovereignty of God.
To preach Christianity so that you can become wealthy, healthy, and famous is worldliness.
To adopt a Gnostic view of the gospel that denies that Jesus is the Son of God is worldliness.
To preach that the Bible is fallible is worldliness.
To promote sexual promiscuity is worldliness.
To condone and promote abortion, homosexuality, divorce, autonomy, antinomianism, and materialism is worldliness.

Worldliness, essentially, is any disobedience to God’s rule and reign in our lives. It is everything and anything that is opposed to the will of God. But we must be careful to note that worldliness is our attitude toward the things of the world, not the things in themselves. That is why worldliness is defined as epithumia, meaning desire and passion. Gnostics said matter is evil. We say matter itself is not evil, but looking upon matter in an idolatrous way is worldliness. So sex in itself is not worldliness, for God created it. Money and things are not evil in themselves, for God gives them to us. It is how we look upon these things that can be defined as worldliness. Pleasure is not evil, but pleasure derived in violation of God’s rule is worldliness. We are told in Hebrews 11:25 about “pleasures of sin for a short time.”

The Father’s Explanation

The Father’s prohibition was, “Do not love the world or anything in the world.” Then John gives us the Father’s explanation. He says, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Notice the phrase, ” the love of the Father.” It is an objective genitive meaning our love for God, not his love for us. In other words, John is saying, love for God and love for the world are mutually exclusive. To love the world is to love evil. To love the world is to hate and despise God. To love the world is to love darkness and the kingdom of Satan. To love the world means to be a soldier in the army of the devil.

So we are told “if anyone who loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” John uses the verb “loves” in the present tense, meaning it is a continual action. If anyone continually, habitually loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Anyone who esteems this world as organized under the headship of the devil is against God and the love of the Father is not in him.

Having Love of the Father

Who, then, loves the Father? Those who are born of the Father. Those who are born of God have divine nature in them; thus, they love God. So when John says that the love of the Father is not in someone, he is saying that man is an unregenerate.

Pastors are always experiencing pressure to approve people who want to come to church yet also want to live like devils. They will ask, “Why do you say we are not Christians?” I would answer, “I have observed your lifestyle.” If people do not love God and keep his word, it is an easy conclusion to say that they are not born of God.

Those who are born of God have a divine nature with which they demonstrate their love for God by delightfully keeping his commandments. Such people will not love the world. But the one who loves the world is not born of God, not begotten of the Father.

Your lifestyle reveals who your father is. If you are not a Christian, I pray you will ask God to save you. If you come in great humility and repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved.

If you love God, you will do the will of God; if you love the world, you will do the will of the god and father of this world. You must recall what Jesus Christ said to the unbelieving people of his day in John 8:44: “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want and desire to carry out your father’s desire.” In Ephesians 2:2 Paul says that unregenerate people follow the ways of this world and “of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” Contrast that with what God said about Jesus, who always sought to please God by obeying him: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

So the first explanation John gives for not loving the world is that love for the Father and love for the world are mutually exclusive. We either love God or the world.

Sin Is Not of God

The second reason for not loving the world is that everything in the world, defined further as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the bragging of possessions, is not of the Father, but of the devil. In other words, God is not the source of evil.

What is the source of evil? John tells us that the origin of evil is not located in God but in the world-in the devil and his servants.

God is not the source of sin. In 1 John 1:5 we read, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” In James 1:16-17 we read, “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” Every good and perfect gift is from God. We can never locate sin in God.

God is not like the pantheistic Hindu view of God, a being who is both good and evil. The God of Christianity is light, he is holy, and he is truth. Everything in the world, as defined as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the bragging of things, is not of God.

The Lust of the Flesh

What is the lust of the flesh? This phrase in the Greek refers to evil desires which spring up from within us. These desires can spring up at any time, even when you are in the church. Everything can be wonderful, but all of a sudden, some wrong appetite, some evil desire, will spring up from within our flesh. The word isepithumia, lust, which means a desire that demands urgent gratification through illegitimate means.

We must be quite clear that our appetites are God’s creation and therefore good, but how we satisfy them is what matters. The satisfaction of bodily appetites in violation to God’s will is where evil manifests itself. For example, we may have a desire to worship. That is wonderful, but whom are we worshiping? We may have a desire to eat, which is proper, but are we stealing to get food? We may have a desire to drink, or to be significant in the world or to have sex. All these things are proper, but the issue of sin comes in how we fulfill those desires-either in obedience to the good revealed will of God or in violation of that will. So the word epithumia means desire demanding satisfaction. It is not a passive idea. It is an urgent desire demanding immediate gratification, particularly in terms of violation of God’s will.

Those who are Christians must understand that sin still dwells in us. This sin, through our appetites, will demand unlawful gratification. The Pharisees located sin outside of man, but Jesus correctly located sin in us. He spoke about this in Mark 7-23: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.'”

Paul also speaks of this idea of “the lust of the flesh” in his letters. In Galatians 5:19-21 he says, “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” But in verse 24 he says in reference to Christians, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.”

In Titus 3:3 we read, “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.” It was a life controlled by appetites-people who were slaves to appetites, who lived to eat and drink and engage in sex and party.

After Jesus Christ fasted forty days, he became hungry and was tempted to make bread out of stone. Having a desire to eat is proper, but the temptation was to satisfy this appetite illegitimately. What did Jesus tell the devil? “No!” He said, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”

The Lust of the Eyes

The second problem John speaks about is the lust of the eyes. With our eyes we look outside of ourselves. The lust of the flesh is a problem within ourselves that manifests itself in outward behavior. Now, through our eyes the world comes into our inside and causes us to act in a wrong way. We see something, we covet it, and we take it.

Job spoke of this in Job 31:1, saying, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.” That is the nature of the lust of the eyes: we look, we covet, we take.

In Joshua 7 we read about Achan, who was told not to take things that were devoted to God. You see, there is no sin in silver or gold or Babylonish garments. But when Achan saw these things, he coveted them and took them. His problem was the lust of the eyes.

In 2 Samuel 11 we read about King David. Instead of going to war, he stayed in Jerusalem. One afternoon he was sleeping and woke up. As he was walking about, he saw a beautiful woman, Bathsheba. He saw her, he lusted, and he took her to himself, though she was another man’s wife.

In 2 Peter 2:14 Peter warns us about certain people in the church. They are described as having “eyes full of adultery.” Then Peter says, “they never stop sinning.” Therefore, if you are a Christian, then you be careful about the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. Avoid pornography. Be careful as you use the Internet or watch movies or television. Even advertisements on television are designed to cause us to lust and covet and take possession of things we don’t need or can’t afford. As desire is generated within us, we go and buy. If we don’t have money, we will use a credit card, even if we don’t make the minimum payment. That is what lust of the eyes does to us.

Dealing with the Lust of the Eyes

How can we deal with this lust of the eyes? If we are Christians, there are a few things we can do. In Proverbs 4:18 we read, “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” The light of God’s word lights the path for a child of God, telling us what is right and what is wrong. In Proverbs 4:25 we read, “Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you.” In other words, the way to deal with this lust of the eyes is to walk in the light of the word of God and not deviate from it.

In Hebrews 3:1 we read, “Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.” We cannot look upon Jesus and pornography at the same time. In Hebrews 12:2 we read, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. . . .” Again, this is the same idea. Gaze upon, look at, fix our eyes on the light of divine revelation in Jesus Christ. Do not stray outside of that circle of light.

In 2 Corinthians 10:5 Paul said that he took every thought captive to Christ. That is exactly what Jesus Christ did when Satan tempted him to make bread out of stone. Jesus knew that it was not God speaking, so he took that thought captive to the Father’s will and told the devil, “It is not written that I should do what you are telling me to do.”

The Boasting of What We Have and Do

The third thing John speaks about is the bragging of possessions. He uses an interesting word, alazoneia, which is also used in James 4:16. There we read, “As it is, you boast and brag. Such boasting is evil.” What is this boasting about? Life-bios– which means life, but in the sense of a life support system, that which supports physical life. In other words, bios stands for the material things that support our physical life. It is our circumstances.

We find bios used in this sense in 1 John 3:17, where John says, “If anyone has material possessions. . .” In Luke 21:4 we find it also used to refer to the poor widow who put into the temple treasury “all her life,” which consisted in two copper coins. So John is warning us about the worldliness manifested in bragging of possessions, whether about money or cars or jewelry or paintings or golf clubs or toys or anything else.

We find an illustration of this in Luke 12:13-21. A man who was focused on money came to Jesus, asking him to divide an inheritance between him and his brother. In verse 14 Jesus asked him, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” He warned, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.'” Then he told a parable about a man who thought he didn’t need God, like the Pharisee who prayed to himself.

The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I’ll do: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.’ But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.

Worldly riches deceive us into thinking we do not need God. In Revelation 3 we read of the church of Laodicea, who said, “We have everything. We are rich. We have need of nothing,” when, in fact, they were poor, naked, miserable, and blind. In the parable of the sower we are told about the deceitfulness of riches that choke the seed of the gospel.

Whether our riches consist of wealth, money, beauty, fame, or power, they can deceive us into thinking we have arrived at perfect freedom, that we are independent, self-sufficient, and secure. PGM We will brag and boast and give parties to impress others and cultivate our image. We will live by the polls, by what others think, rather than according to the word of God. All this is worldliness and evil.

In Daniel 4 we read about the bragging of King Nebuchadnezzar. In verses 28-30 we read, “All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. Twelve months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, he said, ‘Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?'” What independence! What worldly security! What self-sufficiency! What a fool! And we are told great King Nebuchadnezzar became like an animal until he acknowledged God. This is the deceitfulness of riches.

In Daniel 5 we read about King Belshazzar having a great party. As he was drinking and blaspheming the God of the Hebrews, he saw a hand writing on the wall, “Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.” All of a sudden Belshazzar’s knees knocked together, his legs gave way, and he fell down. He had been deceived by riches and was killed that very night.

This boasting of things, this independent spirit, this self-sufficiency, this security, this deceitfulness of riches or beauty or fame or power is a terrible thing. It is all worldliness and has nothing to do with God.

The World and Its Desires Are Passing Away

The third reason for not loving the world is that this world and its lusts will pass away. There is a certain impermanence, a transient nature, to everything associated with this world. Even the pleasures of sin are but for a season.

In 1 John 2:8 we read that “the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.” Worldliness causes us to think that everything is permanent; that there is no God; that we don’t need God; that we can live without God. But the truth is, this present darkness is not permanent. Evil is not eternal, as in the thought of Hinduism. God in Christ has defeated Satan and driven him out. The light is already shining. The first gleam of dawn appeared when Jesus Christ came into the world. It will increase in its power and lumens until all darkness is completely driven out and the light will be as bright as the noonday sun. The full light of day will appear soon.

Yes, there was a great party going on in Sodom and Gomorrah. There was great laughter and joy as people bragged about things and gold and silver and beauty and all that. But God spoke to Abraham about its destruction. He sent angels to destroy these cities, and in due time they were burned up.

That is where we are as a people and as a nation. Go ahead, Belshazzar, have your party. Soon the writing on the wall will appear and you will be destroyed. That is what John is telling us. Anyone who loves this world, trusts in this world, hopes in this world, and rejects the gospel is a fool because he is trusting in that which is transient and impermanent. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:18, “For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is permanent.” All who trust in this world and serve the devil will also pass away along with the devil and the world. Putrefication has already set in. The sentence of death has already been pronounced upon this evil world and it is only a matter of time.

The Terrible End of Worldly People

vil is self-destructive. “Vanity, vanity, everything is vanity!” the writer of Ecclesiastes exclaimed. Life without God is futility and frustration. In the end, there will be a final shaking before the end comes, as we read in Revelation 20. In verse 10 we read, “And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” In verse 14 we read, “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

In Matthew 25:41 Jesus Christ said, “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'” The world is brought to an end. And in verse 46 Jesus concludes, “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

If you practice worldliness, you are a fool. If you are enslaved by appetites, I urge you to cry out to God. He will set you free, and if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. Cry out to God, that he may regenerate you and put his nature in you with which you will love God and all that is eternal and permanent.

Examine your own life and see whether you have worldliness. If you do, the word to you is, “Mê agapate ton kosmon -Stop loving the world!” Only Christians can do this. Notice, this command comes not from me or the apostle John, but from God himself. It is a warning from heaven. Save yourselves from this crooked and perverse generation. Say “No” to sin and “Yes” to righteousness. Whatever causes you to turn away from God is worldliness-avoid it! Whatever causes you to draw closer to God is godliness-do it! Analyze your own life and apply this word to it. Then you will experience true freedom, which comes from always serving God.

The Father’s Promise

The third point is the Father’s promise to us. After giving us his warning not to love the world and the things of the world, and his explanation for this warning, God now gives a great incentive to his children in terms of a promise so that they will not love the world, but him.

What is the promise? In verse 17 we read, “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever.” This is speaking about blessed immortality of God’s people. We are forever people! Yes, the grass will wither and the flower will fade. The world and its lusts will disintegrate and disappear. But God’s word remains forever and God’s people are destined to live forever with God.

That is why, at the point of death, Christians are not afraid. They know him in whom they placed their trust. He is the resurrection and the life.

In 1 Corinthians 15 we read about the immortality of him who does the will of God. Because we are linked to the Lord Jesus Christ, we will necessarily be clothed with immortality. In verses 50-57 we read,

I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

What about the fool who says there is not God? The fool will also be immortal, but it is not the blessed immortality of eternal life in God’s presence. He will experience eternal existence, but it will be a life of eternal punishment in the eternal fire, a life defined in the Bible as a cursed life in the company of the devil and his angels, away from the presence of God. Oh, how terrible it will be for those who loved this world and who joined the devil in rebellion against God! But the other is blessed immortality, defined in the Bible as blessing. The phrase, “The Lord bless you and keep you” means this in the ultimate analysis: May you live with God forever.

Secure in the Promise of God

In John 11:25-26 Jesus Christ said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

Having been linked to him who is the resurrection and the life, we are secure people. This is not true of the braggart, who boasts about his possessions, his power, and his fame, who carefully manages his image and lives by poll, who craves for recognition from the world and the praise of men. He who pretends he is safe, secure, independent, and free will die, and all he trusted in will fail him. Naked we came into this world and naked we will go out.

We are secure and have stability because we are linked not to this world that is passing away, but, by faith to him who is the resurrection and the life. So the Bible says we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Though we are in the world, we are not of the world; thus, we do not love the world or trust in it. Paul speaks about this in an oblique statement in 1 Corinthians 7:29-31:

What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

As Christians we still participate in this world. We eat, we live, we get married, we have families, we plant trees, we buy cars, we go on trips. We live in the world; we don’t withdraw from it. But though we may have a lot of money and a lot of things, we must never worship and trust in this world. Instead, we should live as though we didn’t possess anything. We are to have a tangential relationship with the cosmos rather than being engrossed in it.

The Dangers of Worldliness

In Luke 8 Jesus told the story of the seed that fell among the thorns. It grew for a while, but soon became unfruitful because it was choked by thorns. In verse 14 Jesus explained the unfruitfulness: “The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear [the preaching of the gospel], but as they go on their way, they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.” In Matthew 13:22 Jesus said, “The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.” In other words, when people pant after riches and find their security and sufficiency in the things and pleasures of this world, their love for the world chokes the word of God in their lives and they become unfruitful. That is why Paul tells us those who have should live as though they do not have.

In Luke 17 we find a description of how people who love the world live. In verses 26-30 we read,

Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

Is there anything wrong with planting and harvesting, marrying and giving in marriage, buying and selling, eating and drinking? Absolutely not! What, then, is the meaning of Jesus’ words? These people were engrossed in these things. They were fools who had no room for God.

In Luke 21:34-36 we find a solemn warning from Jesus Christ:

Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.

Doing the Will of God

Who, then, will live with God forever? Who will abide with Christ? Not the famous, the rich, the philosophers, the ones who live by polls and are always polishing their image. Not the ones who brag about possessions nor the party-givers and party-goers. “The man who does the will of God lives forever,” we read in 1 John 2:17.

Those who do God’s will are the forever people. We are the ones who will live forever in the new heavens and the new earth, where there is no evil and wherein dwells righteousness. We will live forever with God. The unbelievers live for time, but we live in time, in view of eternity and make all of our decisions in light of eternity.

We are called to do the will of God in time, as Jesus did. He spoke about this in John 4:34, where we find this profound statement: “‘My food,’ said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.'” In other words, Jesus was saying, “To do God’s will is my food, my joy, my strength, and my delight.” So from the cross he made the statement, “It is finished,” and in Gethsemane he prayed, “Not my will but thine be done.” It was his pleasure to do the will of God. In fact, Jesus even told the devil, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Man is not just an animal; he has a soul, which is nourished, not by physical food, but by hearing and doing the word of God. That is why John writes, “The man who does the will of God lives forever.”

In John 8:29 Jesus said, “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.” Unbelieving people who love this world are always asking the question, “How will this please me?” Self-centered, self-pleasing creatures of time, they have no regard for God and his law. But Christians ask, “Is this the will of God?” If something is not God’s will, they conclude it is worldliness and avoid it.

A Christian lives, not for his lusts and the satisfaction of them, but for the will of God. So Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” And in 1 Peter 4:1-2 we read, “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.” In 1 John 2:3 we read, “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.” He who does the will of God abides forever. He is not afraid of death. Because he is linked to Jesus Christ, he will be raised from the dead and will live with him for all eternity.

Why should we obey God? Because Jesus Christ saved us by doing the will of God perfectly. Never succumb to the idea that you will be saved because you are doing the will of God. We do the will of God because God has already saved us in Jesus Christ. It is a demonstration that we are children of God. We do the will of God because we love our heavenly Father.

The Cure for Worldliness

What, then, is the cure of worldliness? It is to love for God by doing his will. He who loves the Father does not have to worry about worldliness creeping in on him. If you as a child of God are always asking the question, “What is the will of my heavenly Father in this situation?” you will avoid worldliness.

In Psalm 73 the psalmist was faced with the problem of his own worldliness. But after going into the temple and seeing the reality of God and his kingdom, he ends the psalm declaring, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (vv. 25-26).

I pray we will be like Jesus Christ and say with him that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. I pray we will make doing the will of God the food that nourishes our soul and pay heed to what Jesus said about seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

How many people live for time, as slave of their passions, looking for the approval of everybody! Such people brag about their possessions and pretend to be self-sufficient, though they are not free at all. But a Christian, though he is going to die, will say, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but no matter: God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

There is a day coming in which it will be revealed whether we loved God or the world. In Matthew 7:21 Jesus spoke of that day, saying, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” In Matthew 7:24-25 he said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like the wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation upon the rock.” May God help us to be among those who do the will of God and live forever. Amen.